Hip and HappeningDelhi Diary by Seema Sirohihi Diary by Seema Sirohi
Magazine 14 May 2001
ONCE upon a time, it was derided as an overgrown village teeming with dour bureaucrats and obese politicians. The very idea of living in Delhi was deemed a burden by those "fortunate" enough to be living in India's only true metro where local trains worked and the "dabbawallahs" created management history. Or so they thought. Bombay vs Delhi arguments with visiting relatives raged over the dinner table. It was a bit like the Rajesh Khanna vs Amitabh Bachchan divide—passionate and unbridgeable.
Today Delhi seems so "happening" with its aggressive money flaunting, blatant building sprees, loud billboard culture and breathless designer parties that Bombay is paler by comparison. There is a sense of urban renewal in the city—flyovers are sprouting like pimples on a newly adolescent face and there is even talk of cleaning the Yamuna. True, Bombay will always have Bollywood glamour and more underworld money but what they lack is one zippy ingredient—power. Delhi fizzes with money and power and today's bureaucrats are not even afraid of swinging.
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